


Phone Call

by navaan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Gen Fic, POV Female Character, Post-Iron Man 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-12
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-12 03:56:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1181588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of <i>Iron Man 3</i> Pepper gets a call from a friend. </p><p>(background Pepper/Tony)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Phone Call

She had just finished some paper work and was shooing her assistant out of her office door, when her phone rang. She answered it without looking at the caller ID, expecting it to be Tony, who normally called at this hour if he wasn't hands deep in the guts of one machine or other or otherwise “preoccupied”.

“Hello?”

A soft chuckle from the other end of the line. Not Tony, then. “I hope you don't mind me calling. I'm in the middle of something that I can't easily get out of or I would have dropped by already,” the female voice said. Pepper heard a loud bang from the other end of the line, like something was banging against metal or a huge door falling shut.

“You're in the middle of something,” Pepper repeated, not asking the question that the Black Widow would be unlikely to answer. “Is it a good time to call?”

“The best time. I'll probably be in too much trouble to call again for the next week or so. Nothing I can't handle.”

“I'm sure. Was there something important you wanted to talk about?” She leaned against her desk and tried to think of all the ways Iron Man could possibly be involved in any highly classified S.H.I.E.L.D. related trouble without her knowledge, but drew a blank.

Another loud bang. Pepper was trying hard to ignore it, to not worry or analyze. She had enough experience with these things by now to know that it hadn't been a gunshot. “So, how is Tony?” Natasha asked. She didn't sound out of breath, but it was always hard to tell.

“Don't you already know?“ Pepper asked back, amused now.

“Of course, I do. I know the essentials, read the reports, watched some of the statements he gave. What I want to know is how is he, really? Because that will tell me about what you're dealing with and then I can make an educated guess about how you are feeling, really.“

Pepper chuckled. “You could just ask me how I'm feeling.”

“I could,“ Natasha conceded, “but take it from someone in my line of work: Sometimes you'll get the important answers by not asking the obvious questions.”

The explanation made Pepper utter a startled laugh, before she caught herself. “That makes a lot of sense. And take it from someone who lives with Tony Stark: Not asking the obvious questions to get the right answers is my life.”

A soft puff of breath and a very quiet chuckle. Natasha was amused, too. “So he's fine then?”

“Yes.”

“As annoying as ever?”

“Actually a little less annoying. He's... _better_.” Pepper picked up a manila folder from her desk to put it into her bag. Her assistant was back, pointing at his watch to indicate that Pepper had an appointment in a few minutes. She waved him off with a stern expression. “He's Tony. You know what that means.”

For a moment there was silence at the other end of the line. Pepper began to worry that the connection had broken up, or that Natasha had just had to cut her off to _handle_ whatever it was she was handling at the moment. “Are you sure he's alright? Less annoying doesn't sound good.”

Pepper sighed and frowned at her assistant who was waving at her again. “It's a long story and hard to explain. But he's fine. As fine as Tony Stark can be.”

“Good,” Natasha said quietly. “Than you are too.”

It was a strange way of phrasing it and for a short moment of atypical insecurity Pepper wasn't sure what to say to that. With all that had happened recently there was simply too much to say and too much to keep silent about. Then she said: “We're both okay.”

She could hear noises in the background again, as if Natasha was now moving along a busy street. Natasha answered in a very quiet, neutral tone: “When I looked at the report I got the feeling that _someone_ had not shared all of the details.” A pause. “A lot of things don't add up at all and I was worried that either of you had been hurt worse than the report was letting on. Tony has been holding S.H.I.E.L.D. at arms length since then...”

“That doesn't sound different from his usual MO, him being the eccentric self-made superhero and genius inventor with an interest in not seeing his technology used for warfare any more.” Pepper said it in a light and joking tone, sure that Natasha would get that she wasn't trying to be antagonistic, but also not offering any more details. And it was the truth. Tony had never fully trusted S.H.I.E.L.D. even when he agreed with their general aims. “Is this the reason for this interrogation?”

“No,” Natasha answered immediately, “I wouldn't be interrogating _you_ if it were about that.”

“I'm sure Tony will be glad to know he's still at the top of your list. But I can't promise he'll pick up the phone. He's keeping himself busy,” she said. Her assistant was frowning at her, obviously trying to make sense of the pieces of conversation he'd caught. Pepper gave him another stern look, inwardly smiling when he startled and had the sense to look apologetic and scared at the same time.

“Building armor or building a new house?” Natasha asked deadpan, but for the first time since they had started this conversation the connection was breaking up a little and it was hard to tell, if Natasha had been joking. “Never mind. Tell him to build you a place that can't be sunk into the sea. I'll have to go now,” Natasha informed her. “I'll check up on you, when I'm less busy.”

“That's not...”

“Not to get information. We should catch up,” Natasha added, before Pepper could decline. The line went dead. Pepper looked at her phone, sure that Natasha had hung up on her before things got too busy again on her end.

She sighed.

“Miss Potts,” her assistant called, without entering her office, but making sure to communicate how late they already were.

“I'm on my way, I'm on my way,” she muttered and put her phone away, smiling to herself.

It seemed like Tony wasn't the only one with hero friends these days.


End file.
